post your chicken coop pictures here!

[adkhunter1590]

Well I bought a new house that has a 12x16 shed that I don't have any use for. Decided the flock needed a new home too. Decided to give them12x12 of the shed leaving 4 ft on the one end for me and their supplies. Just framed out a simple wall and door. Also made the nest boxes accessible from the human side. All of this was built using scrap left overs from my father in laws newly built house minus the chicken wire.

I insulated the one corner area because this area will take on the dominant NW winter winds here in Ny. And I have my water bucket over there so I figured it would help with freezing problems. I also added a vented shed skylight to the roof to aid ventilation and light inside the coop during the day. I have another skylight I plan to install this week.

I put this all together in about 4-5 hours. Nothing special but the chickens love their new home. This coop is much more spacious than the last one. I have had them in there for a week now and haven't had any drop in egg production from the move up here in a dog crate in the bed of my truck to being locked in this new coop for a week. They jumped right up into the nest boxes and began laying the very next morning. I let them all out around 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon and they all returned home at dusk were up on the roost bar.

 

[Sylvester017]

With all the discussions going on about having clean drinking water for chickens this was our solution. We don't use tap water because of it's harsh mineralization and chlorination so we use bottled water for the chickens. A jug stays clean for up to 2 weeks before we need to wash it out and refill it. I got tired of losing up to a gallon of bottled water daily in open dirty water bowls and now we don't have to deal with dirty poops and debris from chickens or wild birds! The wild birds don't have a clue how to get under the Brite Tap for water. According to the chickenwaterer.com website they say a Brite Tap jug accommodates up to 12 chickens per jug but for our 4 chickens I use 2 jugs placed around the yard in the shade and keep a 3rd jug indoors for the hospital pen. We aren't handy workshop people to make our own nipple valve buckets so these pre-made Brite Tap nipple valve waterers were the solution for our small cottage yard.

CHICKENS FLEE WHEN THEY SEE MY CAMERA SO HAD TO TAKE THESE PHOTOS THRU THE DOOR. THE SILKIE IS STANDING ON 2 PAVER STONES HIGH WHILE THE AMERAUCANA IS ON THE PAVEMENT. THESE TWO WERE MY SLOWEST CHICKENS TO LEARN HOW TO USE NIPPLE VALVES BUT THEY LEARNED!


THIS WAS THE LAST CHICKEN TO FINALLY UNDERSTAND HOW THE VALVES WORKED - TOOK HER 8 DAYS - AMERAUCANAS CAN EITHER BE THE SMARTEST TO LEARN SOME THINGS OR THE SLOWEST - IT'S AMERAUCANA NATURE TO VIEW NEW THINGS VERY WARILY.


THE 2-GALLON RUBBERMAID WATER JUG AND LID THAT COMES WITH THE BRITE TAP NIPPLE VALVE WATERER PKG



THE BRITE TAP NIPPLE VALVE WATERER PKG INCLUDING THE BRITE TAP INSULATED COVER AT THE BOTTOM - COVER GOT DUSTY FROM ALL THE YARD CONSTRUCTION


I realize this method may not work for everyone but for a small backyard flock this suited us plus we use bottled water and not tap. It's portable and we've moved it around a lot, it keeps the drinking water clean, I can handle it for clean-up in the sink (the chickens can't poop on the jug and only their beaks touch the valves so clean-up is so-o-o easy and fast), it's insulated and keeps the water cool outdoors with a few ice cubes tossed inside. We live in SoCal where temps never go below freezing so this works for us. To anticipate your question, this is the website I ordered from. Mark was very gracious to help me transition my old hens from the open water bowl to using the nipple valves. Following instructions and advice from Mark to a "T" I had the whole flock using the valves. Some hens pick up on it right away while others can be slower or lazier.

http://www.chickenwaterer.com/Chicken-Poultry-Waterer-s/1817.htm

That seems like a fantastic idea! I had ordered some nipples on Amazon maybe a month ago but had no idea this thing existed. I've seen other similar ones but this seems way better. I'm not handy either so this would be great. Though it does seem a tad high to order two or three so maybe I could just get one? We have 8 though. How did you train them? Do you havr to take away the other waterer?

I got tired of open bowls for water - especially since I had one chicken that loved to soak her feet like a spa which polluted the drinking water. Then the wild birds flew in for their drink and left their droppings in the water as if the kicked up debris from the chickens wasn't enough to dirty the water. The wild birds were the WORST! I had to clean out the bowls 2 and 3x a day - ugh! I tried taller bowls but then the Silkies couldn't reach comfortably and shorter bowls just invited my spa diva chicken. I kept reading about nipple valve waterers but everything I saw home-made or pre-manufactured just didn't fit my little flock and the wild birds could still access some of these nipple valve water designs. When I came across the Brite Tap it was perfect for what I needed. There's no way for a wild bird to perch and still reach the valves. There's never been bird poop on the jug so I know the wild birds aren't able to get to water. We bought a wooden crate at JoAnn's Fabric Craft store and a Brite Tap jug fits perfectly inside - the crate acts as both shade and as deterrent from wild birds perching on the jug.

According to Mark at chickenwaterer.com he said the 2-gallon Rubbermaid jug would be good for 12 chickens. One is enough for my flock for two weeks but I got 3 Brite Taps so one fits in a coop or hospital pen, one is located at the front of the yard, and one is located at the back of the yard and I just fill them halfway. If I were to use only one Brite Tap then I would fill it to capacity. Chickens drink an amazing amount of water so if you have 8 hens then keep the jug filled to capacity and add a little more water to it in a few days. I clean the jugs and refill them every couple weeks before the water level goes below the tap valve and none of my bottled water inside the jug gets dirty. We have had some heavy Bobcat dirt digging with lots of dust flying around in both front and back yard and the water stays clean even with the air valve left open on the screw-on lid.

To transition old chickens from open water bowls to nipple valves is easy if you follow advice exactly from the Brite Tap instructions. You have to remove all access to water except for the Brite Tap and then bring your smartest chicken to the nipple valves and tap them so that the thirsty chicken can see the water dribbling out. We went outside about 20x a day to tap the valves until our smartest bird caught on in a couple hours how to do it herself. We brought each of our chickens to the valves and kept tapping while they drank from our dripping fingers at the valves. It took a couple hours for the smartest little hen to catch on like a pro. Another one took about 4 or 5 days to master the valves as we kept showing her how it worked. And our Ameraucana finally caught on 8 days later as she watched the other chickens drinking. So our birds didn't dehydrate in the interim we fed them wet treats like cantaloupe, cukes, etc. but NO OLD WATER BOWLS! The best time to train them is in the morning when they are thirsty from an all night roost.

 

[Beekissed]

I love nipple buckets and use them when I have to pen a bird for some reason, but can't imagine how you keep the nipples from freezing up in the winter months with that setup.

 

[adeleroy8]

Adele's Happy Hens new chateaux....

 

[bruceha2000]

Then I went to a heated hanging drinker which stays cleaner because I hang it so they have to work at it to get a drink but its still a pain to clean and refil because its heavy and has a thin wire handle which bites into my trigger finger hands so I'm trying the nipple idea now (fortunately i have an 1/8th inch pipe tap) but I'm going to have to move it out from under the nests to get it high enough for them to stand under it and let the water drip into their mouths.

Are you talking nipples in a bucket or saddle nipples in PVC? I am using the latter inside the coop at ~18" off the ground connected to a 5 gallon Igloo drink cooler mounted outside the coop so adding water is no harder than pouring a gallon in now and then. My water pipe is built into the bottom of the 3 bay nest box. Were I to do it again, I would make it a separate unit and screw it to the bottom of the nest boxes.

Well I bought a new house that has a 12x16 shed that I don't have any use for. Decided the flock needed a new home too. Decided to give them12x12 of the shed leaving 4 ft on the one end for me and their supplies. Just framed out a simple wall and door. Also made the nest boxes accessible from the human side. All of this was built using scrap left overs from my father in laws newly built house minus the chicken wire.

I insulated the one corner area because this area will take on the dominant NW winter winds here in Ny. And I have my water bucket over there so I figured it would help with freezing problems. I also added a vented shed skylight to the roof to aid ventilation and light inside the coop during the day. I have another skylight I plan to install this week.

I put this all together in about 4-5 hours. Nothing special but the chickens love their new home. This coop is much more spacious than the last one. I have had them in there for a week now and haven't had any drop in egg production from the move up here in a dog crate in the bed of my truck to being locked in this new coop for a week. They jumped right up into the nest boxes and began laying the very next morning. I let them all out around 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon and they all returned home at dusk were up on the roost bar.

That is quite a nice sized shed/coop. Plenty of room when chicken math hits

What have you done to protect against digging predators?

Also you used BAD words: "chicken wire". Where are you using it? It is not hard at all for predators to get through. Use 1/2" hardware cloth to keep the predators out.

I don't think insulating one wall will do anything with regard to temperature in the coop, especially one that big cubic feet wise, nor keep the water from freezing. If properly ventilated, shy adding heat (man made or solar through glass), the coop will be about the same temp inside and out in the depths of winter even if fully insulated. If my birds are typical they LOVE to peck rigid foam insulation so if the sheet goods you have there aren't for covering the wall with the foam, I suggest you get something to cover it.

 

[Lillyanna]

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[Lillyanna]

 

[Sylvester017]

I love nipple buckets and use them when I have to pen a bird for some reason, but can't imagine how you keep the nipples from freezing up in the winter months with that setup.

There are all kinds of devices from thin heating rods to add to the water buckets to heated bowls, etc, when you research on the internet but they require electrical connections and that makes me nervous around water. I can just see one of my hens become a Frizzle if she found something electrical LOL! But really, the Brite Tap nipple valve package works for me because our climate rarely if ever goes to freezing in SoCal. The nipple valves don't work well at high altitudes like Colorado because there's not enough air pressure for the valves to work properly. Rarely one day every decade we get a thin sheet of snow on the ground and then it melts by noon. I'm not sure what others do to keep their nipple valves from freezing other than inserting heating rods into the water container. I mean, what do owners do to keep their regular water bowls from freezing? I'm sure there's always a creative solution.

 

[Beekissed]

The in bucket heaters won't keep the nipples themselves from freezing when severe cold hits. Those who use rubber pans just dump out the ice and refill every day...I used to do that back in the day. LOVE my heated dog bowl...safe electric, fresh water. I've also got heated buckets for my dogs and love those as well. I use a large rubber pan for the rest of the year for all animals and that stays clean as well...I elevate it off the ground inside an old tire and that keeps it cool and cleaner.

 

[Gorman Farm]

Wow some of these coops are amazing.
We only have 9 chickens, and we re-purposed materials from an old barn we tore down.
Our coop has 2 roosts, two nesting areas, and four different areas to place the small chicken tractor so they
can have dust bathes, graze, and get buggies and fresh air. We rotate which opening they come out, we live
in rural Florida so shade was important, we found a nice place under a large oak. Our coop is not fancy but it
works.